


Once In an Iron Blue Moon

by Zennistrad



Category: Touhou Project, 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Adventure, Ambiguously Romantic Gal Pals, Angst From Having Become What You Once Swore To Destroy, Crossover, F/F, Gen, Mostly Fluff, Secret Family History, Slice of Life, Some Plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-30 08:29:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21425224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zennistrad/pseuds/Zennistrad
Summary: In June of 2007, a rare second full moon of the month prompts Remilia Scarlet to throw a second full moon party at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. In her efforts to make everything perfect, Sakuya Izayoi works herself to the point of sickness. After falling unconscious from sheer exhaustion, Sakuya is ordered by Remilia to take a vacation. At Remilia's insistence, she travels to the Outside World, far from the reminders of her daily stresses in Gensokyo.Though the Outside World was once her home, Sakuya quickly realizes that she's lost any sense of connection to human civilization. Searching for even one person there that she can trust, she finds her way to northern France to meet an old friend — Charlotte Aulin, a former human turned immortal magician.But as the two reconnect, Sakuya begins to notice someone watching them. A mysterious man in white, who seems to have control over time...
Relationships: Sakuya Izayoi & Aeon, Sakuya Izayoi & Happiness, Sakuya Izayoi/Charlotte Aulin
Comments: 16
Kudos: 50





	1. Cover Art

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art drawn for me by @XavierPujolart on Twitter


	2. Prologue

_Not clean enough._

The thought had occurred to Sakuya many times throughout her career as a maid. The Scarlet Devil Mansion was large, larger than any dwelling that had conceivably existed, with the only possible exception being Castle Dracula itself. There were so many rooms to clean, so many places to make certain held to a perfect standard of tidiness.

_Not clean enough._

A vigorous cleaning of the Mansion was always part of the preparations before a full moon. Remilia made a habit of throwing parties during the event, as a way of gaining favor with the various youkai that lived near her home. Given the sheer number of powerful people in Gensokyo, it was always a wise idea to make sure they liked you. Remilia learned that the hard way, when she first moved in from the outside world. Or so Sakuya had heard.

_More cleaning.  
_

Tonight was an unusual occasion, however. It was an event that only occurred once in a blue moon, in that it was literally a blue moon event. The second full moon of the month, meaning the second party to throw in less than a month's worth of time. Sakuya had not yet even begun to set up the decorations, but she put everything she could into her work. Everything had to be _spotless._ Her master would expect nothing less.

_Still not clean enough!_

This time, however, Sakuya had to go the extra mile. The last full moon party required extensive preparations, and Remilia insisted _that_ one be the biggest and best party she'd ever thrown. And with this one falling on the same month, Sakuya knew her master would want it to be even _better. _Larger, more extravagant, more ambitious. And that meant that everything had to be held to a whole new standard of cleanliness.

As she worked, everything seemed to move by so fast that she could barely perceive it. Which was saying something, in her experiences. Thanks to her time powers it took only a fraction of a second, and within that time she would sweep, dust, vacuum, scrub, and mop until everything in the room was tidied to perfection. Then, she would look over her work and move on to the next room.

_More cleaning! Keep working!_

Normally she would have already been done by now. But this time around, her inner voice refused to let her stop. With her master's ever-increasing set of expectations, her own sense of work ethic demanded more. Her _responsibilities _demanded more.

And she would push herself to meet those demands, no matter how much her body complained.

_STILL NOT CLEAN ENOUGH!_

By the time she'd gone through her sixth or seventh run through the library, it felt like every one her muscles was being stabbed with a thousand knives. She'd scrubbed every surface so hard that her arms felt like they could fall off right away, and ran to each corner of the massive complex so much that her legs had turned to jelly.

Yet still, she continued to move, and continued to perform her work. Sluggishly, yet continuing all the same. Ignoring the aches, ignoring the pins and needles of fatigue throughout her body, she persisted.

It wasn't until she nearly collapsed onto the floor that she realized just how far past her limit she was.

The next moments were too blurry for Sakuya to recall. She could feel the flow of time resuming to normal. She could hear the frightened squeak of Patchouli's little devil servant. She could vaguely recall a group of panicked fairy maids picking her up, and carrying her somewhere. As her vision faded to black, she just managed to utter one more sentence.  
  
"Wait... I still need to decorate..."


	3. Premonition

_It was a lonely day in the schoolhouse, no different from any other. No matter how many other children there were, no matter how much the teacher lady tried to get them to play together, it was always lonely. And in the back of the classroom, sat one very lonely little girl._

_The lessons that the teacher gave were always boring. They were nothing like the stories that her mommy had told her of the big bad man, of the great things her grandpa's grandpa did, and the things that someone like her would do one day. She was smart enough to answer all the teacher's questions, but they never held her interest for long._

_Eventually, the teacher let the class out for recess. Just as always, the little girl chose to sit by the tree on the hill, far away from the green field where all the other children played. If she tried to play with them, they would think she was cheating, even though she wasn't. She didn't understand why. Her mommy always taught her that everyone was special in their own way, what did it matter that she could do things that they couldn't? So she sat beneath the tree, legs crossed under the shade, reading the book of stories her mommy had given to her._

_As she flipped through the pages, she could feel a warmth swell in her chest, the same warmth she felt as her mommy read the stories to her at night. She didn't know what half the words in the book meant, but it didn't matter. If she could, she would make reading time under the tree last forever. She could make it last longer if she wanted, but one day she'd be good enough to make it last forever._

_But her reading time was cut short when a voice called out to her._

_"Excuse me, young lady? Do you happen to know time?"_

_The little girl gave a squeak, and dropped the book on the ground. That wasn't supposed to happen. People weren't supposed to talk to her during reading time. It shouldn't have been possible. But even stranger was the person who had spoken to her._

_It was a rabbit. A white rabbit, only slightly larger than any other rabbit she saw in the field, standing barely halfway up to her knees. Yet it was dressed like a person, with a blue coat and a shiny top hat, and a tiny silver pocketwatch in his paw.  
  
"Um," said the little girl. "Um. I don't know what time it is."_

_"I wasn't inquizzing if you knew the time of day, my dear," said the rabbit. "I was asking if you knew TIME."_

_The little girl blinked and rubbed her eyes, and yet the rabbit was still there. Was she dreaming?_

_"Um. Um. I dunno," she said. "Are you... are you a monster?"_

_"A monster? Incomprobable, my friend! I am no Jabberwock or Bandersnatch, merely a simple couriary. As the clock tocks and ticks along, the moon changes its face, correct?"_

_"Um," said the little girl. Though rabbit spoke nonsense words, she felt like she could understand. "Um. You mean moon phases, right?"_

_"Posilutively, my friend! For the moon to know what face to wear, the brain of the moon must know the time. Thus, I thoughtfully serve the one who serves one's thoughts, transtributing letters from time to the moon. And I must say, you seem to be a great deal resemplary of time. So I wonder, do you know time, perhaps?"_

_"Um. Um," said the girl. "Um... I don't know?"_

_"Ah," said the rabbit. His rabbit-lips twitched slightly as he frowned, causing his nose to wiggle very in a rabbity way. "Well, no matter! In that case, I bid you farewellediction."_

_Just before the rabbit turned to leave, the girl called out. "Um, wait!"_

_"Hm? What is it?"_

_"Oh, um. Nothing. I was just wondering. What exactly are you, if you're not a monster? Do you have a name?"_

_"An excellentary question!" the rabbit declared. "One that I cannot answer, for my name is that which names not. But for now, you may refer to me as the Chronomage. And since I've had the pleasure of introdouncing myself, why don't you tell me your own name?"  
  
The little girl froze up before she could speak. It didn't feel right, telling her name to a stranger. Her mommy didn't even want her talking to strangers to begin with, but she had forgotten that simply because of how strange this stranger was. __And yet, at the same time, something about this rabbit seemed... different. He wasn't a monster, and even if he was, he didn't seem anything like the mean monsters her mommy told her about._ _He was strange, but he didn't seem scary like a stranger._

_And so, against everything she had always been taught, the little girl introduced herself to the strange rabbit._

_"My name is So..."_

* * *

Sakuya awoke in the dead of night, to the sight of her own room. From the dust that had gathered on her bookshelves and nightstand, she could tell right away that she had not fallen asleep there of her own choice. The gas lamp by her bed flickered brightly, casting its light against the winged, fanged figure standing just beside her bed.  
  
"Good, you're awake," said Remilia. "I think you and I need to have a talk."


	4. Prelude

The Scarlet Devil Mansion’s throne room was imposing in even the best of times. It was the highest room of the mansion, apart from the Clock Tower. Past the library, into the western corridors, through a convoluted winding path that led directly to the Scarlet Keep.

Sakuya never bothered questioning the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s layout. It was clear that Remilia admired Dracula’s taste in floor plans.

And much like Dracula’s, Remilia’s keep was a smaller floating structure separate from the main building, suspended in the air by magic. It was a relatively recent addition, added some time after the Scarlet Mist Incident. Though the mansion was not a spawn of Chaos, Remilia insisted it be continually renovated to a similar effect. Like Castlevania itself, its internal structure never remained the same for long.

As Sakuya ascended the final staircase, the waxing gibbous moon shone brightly through the clouds. It appeared almost impossibly close from the Scarlet Keep’s ascent, floating just out of reach, as though it were itself sending an invitation. Not much longer now, and Sakuya would reach throne room, where she would have to explain her failure to her master. Her thoughts turned back to earlier that night, when she woke to Remilia standing over her in her own room.

_“Good, you're awake. I think you and I need to have a talk.”_

_“I… Mistress, I can explain…”_

_Remilia held out a hand. “No, save it. I don’t want to hear you give excuses. Are you well enough to climb the Keep tonight?”_

_“Yes. Of course,” Sakuya hastily replied._

_“Good. Meet me in the throne room at midnight. We’ll discuss things there.” And with that, she turned and departed the bedroom, gently closing the door behind her. _

Sakuya grumbled inwardly as the memory played in the corner of her mind. Why couldn’t Remilia have just said what she wanted to say there? She always had to make things more complicated than they needed to be.

_Not that I’m in a place where I can complain._

Resigned to her fate, Sakuya continued up the stair, yet nevertheless she felt a sense of trepidation bubbling up within her chest. Her legs stiffened as she put one after the other, moving with awkward and strut that sharply contrasted her normally elegant movements. The final steps of the great staircase gave way to a simple porch, right before the stony throne room. A pair of fairy maids with sheathed swords flanked the great double doors, alongside a pair of standing candelabras whose flames produced no smoke. Her body tensed as the fairies opened the door, and she felt as though she could break the candles in frustration.

_I fainted on the job. I failed. I’m a failure. _The thoughts came barging into her mind against her desires._ What do I do? How do I explain myself to her? What will I say to her? Will I be punished?_

The interior of the throne room was a grand space, with carved stone pillars surrounding a black marble dais. The dais sat just below a scarlet cloth canopy, which framed an ornately-carved granite throne. Every time she saw the throne, Sakuya couldn’t help but think it would be uncomfortable to sit on, but that apparently didn’t bother its current occupant.

From the throne atop the dais, Remilia Scarlet seemed to loom over everything else. Standing below her, it was easy to forget that she had the stature of a child. She swirled a crystal wine glass in her left hand as she looked down, though it was obvious at a glance that the red liquid in it was not wine.

Out of habit, Sakuya lowered herself onto her left knee. “You asked me to come here, milady?”

Remilia took a tentative sip from her wine glass. Her bat-like wings fluttered, and she lifted herself off the throne, landing gently at the edge of the steps. “There’s no need for such formalities, Sakuya. I called you here not as your master, but as a friend.”

Sakuya’s eyes went wide. Her neck craned upward to look Remilia straight in the eye. Remilia, in turn, let out a laugh.

“Oh, don’t look so surprised. Even the ruthless Scarlet Devil cares for her servants, you know.”

Sakuya could feel the blood rushing to her face. “Ah! No, milady. I’m aware. It’s just, well…”

“Yes, it’s not like me to say that out loud, I know,” Remilia replied, as though she could read minds at that moment. “That’s why I wanted to speak to you here, where the fairy maids wouldn’t dare eavesdrop. The truth is…” Her face turned darker for a moment, and she let out a sigh. “…I’m worried about you.”  
  
“Oh?”

“You heard me. I’m worried about you,” Remilia repeated. “You worked yourself to the point of unconsciousness last night. No matter how you spin it, that can’t be healthy.”

“Milady, please, it’s fin—”

“No, it is _not!_” Remilia huffed. “I’m not going to have my best maid working herself literally to death. You need to take it easy before you hurt yourself. So, here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to take a vacation.”

“A vacation?” It took a few moments for the phrase to fully register in Sakuya’s mind. It was such an alien idea, the mere thought of it sent her head spinning. “But milady, the full moon celebration—”

“Will be fine,” Remilia forcefully cut in. She placed her hands on her hips and glared. “Your health comes first. There will be no arguments on this. _Got that?_”

_No offense, milady, but the fairy maids couldn’t prepare a sleepover, let alone a house party. _That was what Sakuya _wanted_ to say, but in the end she could only give a hollow affirmation, as always.

Remilia clapped her hands together, and bared her fangs in a wide grin. “Excellent! Now, we need to figure out where you’ll be having your vacation. Let me think…”

Sakuya desperately wanted to say something, anything. The more she thought about the possibility of leaving, the more she realized what an unmitigated disaster it would be. She’d only briefly seen the interior of the Scarlet Devil Mansion before she became a maid, before she’d been forced into servitude. To say it was a mess would have been an understatement. The fairy maids couldn’t understand how to keep the place clean on an ordinary day, let alone when it was prepared for a massive celebration. This was a disaster in the making.

“Milady, wait.”

“A-ha! I’ve got it!” said Remilia. “We’ll have you go on vacation in the outside world!”

“_What!?”_

If Remilia saw the flabbergasted look on Sakuya’s face, she didn’t show it. “Isn’t it a wonderful idea? You came from the outside world, so it’ll be familiar to you. But you also won’t have to worry about anything that’s happening in Gensokyo. It’s perfect!”

Sakuya stood up abruptly. For a brief moment, she had completely forgotten the etiquette of master and servant. “M-milady, no! Please reconsider! I can’t just leave!”

“Sure you can. Just ask Red-White to help you cross the Barrier,” Remilia retorted. She paused for a moment and regarded Sakuya quizzically. “Or are you hung up about leaving Gensokyo? Is _that_ what this is about?”

“I…” Sakuya considered many different ways to respond, but in the end only one proved adequate. “…Gensokyo is my home.”

Remilia shook her head lightly, giving a teasing ‘tsk-tsk.’ “And to think you’d grow so attached to this place! I remember when you hated it here.”

Sakuya bristled at the statement. It was true, but it wasn’t something she wanted to admit. Her first few years as a maid were more tumultuous than she would have liked.

For the first time, Remilia seemed to take notice of Sakuya’s apparent discomfort. “Look, you’re not going to be gone for very long, okay? Just until the end of the summer. And don’t worry about finding your way back, I’ll see to it that the old gap lady lets you in.”

Sakuya stared back curiously. “You’re on speaking terms with Yakumo?”

“Technically, no. But I have ways of getting her attention.”

Sakuya had to suppress the urge to sigh in exasperation. “Please milady, that won’t be necessary. I’ve already crossed into Gensokyo once, I can find a way to do it again.”

“Well, if you insist,” said Remilia with a grin. “Now go and pack your things. You’ll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning.”

Sakuya’s throat had suddenly felt unbearably dry. Unable to find the words to respond, she simply gave a bow, and turned to leave for her quarters. As she exited the throne room, a single thought weighed down on her mind, pushing out all others.

_What have I gotten myself into?_


	5. A Small Prayer

The gentle _click _of Sakuya’s high heels on the stone path marked her arrival at the Hakurei Shrine. It was a simple shrine, with an antiquated construction that was perhaps centuries old, though judging by its apparent luck it had likely been destroyed and rebuilt several times. The late morning sun bore down heavily on the mountainous terrain, and Sakuya could already feel a slick summer sweat pooling on her forehead as she approached. Behind her, a large rolling suitcase _clicked _and _clacked _as the wheels ran over the bumps in the cobblestone. Its blue polyester surface was slightly singed, as a group of mischievous fairies had tried to steal it while she was flying, resulting in a brief but awkward aerial dogfight.

As Sakuya passed through the red _torii_ gate, she could instantly feel the shrine’s spiritual presence wash over her. Theoretically, the gate was meant to serve as the boundary between that warded off youkai, though it was obvious to anyone that this didn’t work. Sakuya had visited the shrine several times alongside various youkai, typically as a place to unwind after the stress of dealing with an incident.

Of course, having youkai regularly visit your shrine wasn’t very good for attracting human visitors, and so it remained perpetually impoverished. That, and there was always an atmosphere of foreboding about the place, a vague feeling of unease and bitterness that permeated the air. Youkai may have been okay with that sort of thing, but it certainly wasn’t the sort of feeling you wanted a shrine to have…

…Yet as she approached the main building of the Hakurei Shrine, Sakuya began to notice that the foreboding feeling was entirely absent. There was no longer a sense of tension pervading the atmosphere. On the contrary, feeling the warm air in her lungs was downright soothing.

The thought was immediately ended when she passed by the donation box, and her left foot pressed down on something taut. Right away, the _suzu _bell next the donation box gave a rolling metallic ring. When Sakuya looked down, she noticed she had stepped on a transparent tripwire, attached to the bell on one end and to a small wooden post on the other.

Right away, the sound was followed by footsteps, and Reimu Hakurei quickly darted out of the building, wearing her ever-familiar red and white miko uniform. Her eyes seemed to light up at first, but then quickly dulled as soon as they set themselves on Sakuya.

“Oh. It’s just you.”

Sakuya raised an eyebrow. “What was that all that about?”

“Some half-baked idea Marisa came up with,” said Reimu. “You’re supposed to ring the bell when you make a donation, right? So she figured if people rang the bell by accident, they’d be more likely to donate.”

“And has it worked?” asked Sakuya.

“Were you planning to donate?”

“No.”

“Then it hasn’t worked,” Reimu grumbled. “Anyway, what do you want from me? You couldn’t have come here with that luggage for no reason.”

_Straight to the point as usual, I see. _“Milady has ordered me to take a vacation,” Sakuya replied. “And she wishes that I spend it in the Outside World. I’ll need you to let me pass through the Hakurei Barrier.”

Reimu gave Sakuya an incredulous stare. “Really, now? First of all, she wants _you _to take a vacation? You’re pretty much the only thing holding that mansion together.”

_Trust me, I’m aware._

“And more importantly, do you really expect me to compromise the integrity of the Barrier so frivolously?”

Sakuya’s frown deepened. Her mind reached inwards, poised to conjure a flurry of danmaku knives at a moment’s notice. “Are you suggesting that I disobey the orders of my mistress?”

“No, of course not. I’m saying that if you want me to let you cross the Barrier, you need to give me a good reason.” As she spoke Reimu’s eyes brightened suddenly. “I’ve got it. How about 5,000 yen?”

“…What?”

“For a donation of 5,000 yen, I’ll let you cross the Barrier,” Reimu elaborated.

“Reimu, that’s not a donation,” Sakuya said. “That’s a _transaction._”

“Look, do you want to go on vacation or not?”

With a sigh of resignation, Sakuya let her body and mind relax. She reached into a supernaturally-compressed pocket of space between the folds of her dress, and pulled out a simple leather wallet. She reached into and produced five 1,000 yen banknotes — from one of the older printings of the mid 20th century, judging by the portrait of Prince Shoutoku on it.

Reimu beamed. “Thank you. Now stand aside, and I’ll create an opening.”

Sakuya nodded, and stood to the side as Reimu approached the shrine’s _torii_. She put her hands together in a brief gesture of prayer, and the gate responded in turn. Within its boundaries appeared a thin, shimmering layer of iridescent energy, like a film of novelty bubble soap stretched over the inside of the gate.

With the prayer completed, Reimu turned around, and gave Sakuya a smile. “Alright, it’s done. Just walk through and you’ll be in the Outside World.”

“Thank you,” said Sakuya. Carrying her luggage behind her, she approached the gate with bated breath. _This is it, _she thought. _This is the first time I’ll have set foot outside Gensokyo since i came here._She took a deep breath, letting the warm summer air fill her lungs. She could feel the ambient spiritual energy wash over her as she did, calming her nerves in a way she’d never felt from Hakurei Shrine before.

Come to think of it, Reimu had been in a noticeably better mood than usual. Sakuya was certain that she would have to fight to pass through the Barrier, and yet Reimu was willing to let her through without much confrontation.

Just as she approached the edge of the gate, Sakuya paused. “By the way, did you do something with the place? It feels a lot nicer here than usual.”

“Oh, that?” said Reimu. “I finally drove out the evil spirit that had been lurking around here. It turns out it was making the Shrine a lot less hospitable, and I didn’t even realize it.”

Sakuya blinked. “Evil spirit?”

“I know, I’d totally forgotten it was there,” Reimu said. “But it’s a big difference in atmosphere, don’t you think? Hopefully, this means I’ll be getting more visitors now.”

“Well, good luck with that,” said Sakuya. “In any case, I’ll be back when summer ends. See you then.”

“Goodbye,” said Reimu.

Then Sakuya stepped through the shimmering barrier, and left the boundaries of Gensokyo.

* * *

When Sakuya passed into the Outside World, it had not yet been apparent how much it had changed. She had arrived at the alternate Hakurei Shrine, a dilapidated, long-abandoned shrine in the remote regions of Yatsugatake-Chushin Kougen Quasi-National Park. She had been here, once. During her personal quest, one that unexpectedly brought her into Remilia’s service, and gave her the name everyone in Gensokyo knew her by. The alternate shrine was little different now from how she remembered it, a collapsing ruin covered in trees and foliage, only identifiable as a shrine by the red gate standing at the front.

Standing there, she thought about her next move. It would take many hours’ worth of hiking to find her way back to the edges of the park, and even longer to walk to Suwa, the nearest city. If she flew, she could get there quickly, but that would leave her with the risk of being seen. She couldn’t afford to attract that much attention.

Sakuya felt like slapping herself when the obvious solution stared her right in the face. She could fly to Suwa in literally no time at all, without anyone even noticing.

And so, Sakuya reached out with her mind and halted time in place, and lifted off to find her next destination.

* * *

As the maid took to the air, a pair of unseen eyes set its sights on her. Completely unaffected by the sudden halt in the flow of time, the Man in White looked up, his monocled eye tracing the maid’s movements as she disappeared into the still horizon. He glanced at a silver pocket watch held in his hand, its face marked with thirteen hours.

“Excellent,” he said. “Right on time, as usual.”


	6. The Visitor with the Silver Stopwatch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A minor retcon for the previous chapter — one line that said "almost forty years" has been changed to say “more than fifty years.” I’ve also removed one joke that I realized doesn’t work in the timeline of events I’ve set up, since this fic takes place before the events of Mountain of Faith.
> 
> In my current outline the timeline works better this way, but it shouldn’t change much else.

Sakuya had almost forgotten what it was like in the outside world. So many of the things out here were completely foreign to her experience of Gensokyo; if someone had told her that she had come from here, she wasn’t sure if she’d believe it. Paved roads, buildings built from glass and stone, electric lights on every street – it was so jarring seeing it all again, now. And yet, all things considered, Suwa was one of the less populous cities in Japan. She could only wonder how strange the major metropolitan centers would be to her.

The outskirts of the city were distinctly suburban, with rolling hills covered in greenery, punctuated by modern housing built along roads and power lines. As she moved further in towards the center, the buildings grew gradually closer together, until they formed a distinctly modern environment. Sure, the trees and hills could still be seen in the surroundings, but the power lines, asphalt, and concrete made it clear this place was a far cry from Gensokyo’s Human Village.

And so, having made her way to the city, Sakuya made her way to an isolated street corner, in between a pair of apartment buildings, devoid of any people who might see her appear out of nowhere. Gracefully landing onto the ground, she set her rolling suitcase behind her, and let the flow of time move once more.

Of course, that still left Sakuya with the question of what she would _do _out here. Her mistress had demanded she take a vacation, but she had no idea what that would entail. Especially not here, in a world she hadn’t seen in decades.

There had to be somewhere she could start. Thankfully, as she came out the alley, she saw a small coffee shop down the street.

A coffee to start her morning was exactly what she needed. She could consider her options far more clearly once her mind had been jogged by a dose of caffeine. Her suitcase’s wheels rolled loudly against the asphalt as she crossed the street. She didn’t bother to look both ways, as the thought of traffic never even crossed her mind.

A little bell on the door rang as Sakuya walked into the shop. If there was one word she’d have used to describe the establishment, it would be ‘cozy.’ A single counter in front of the various coffee-making machines, with a door leading to a small kitchen in the back. The shop itself had only three wooden tables to seat costumers, with antique woodblock prints hung on the walls, and small potted plants in each corner. Her housekeeper’s eye couldn’t help but notice what a shoddy job of dusting the owners had done – while the tables were immaculately clean, the floors around the corners had a thin layer of dust gathering over them.

Seeing such a slapdash job of cleaning brought a twitch to her eye, but she chose to ignore it. She was on vacation. She was here to relax. Whatever that even meant. She approached the middle-aged man at the counter, who had been blankly staring at her from the moment she stepped through the door.

“Hello, I’ll have a coffee please. No cream or sugar.”

The shopkeeper continued his stare for a moment. He held up his finger, and stepped back from the counter, leaning around the corner of the shop.

“Excuse me! Michiko?” he called back. “Do you speak English?” No honorific, Sakuya noted – this was clearly a family-owned business.

“Not very well,” a female voice called from behind the door. “Why?”

“We have a tourist from America!”

“Here? But we never get tourists in our shop!”

“Well, don’t just stand there, help me out here!”

Sakuya felt a terrible heat building in her cheeks. “No! No! That won’t be necessary! I’m perfectly fluent in Japanese, I promise!”

The man jumped in place, then looked back at Sakuya. A slight bead of sweat appeared on his forehead. “Ah! Right, right. Of course. My deepest apologies, miss maid. I’ll prepare your coffee right away.”

“Thank you,” said Sakuya.

Some time after giving her money to the bewildered shopkeeper, Sakuya received her coffee, and sat down at the table by the window. A short breath escaped her mouth. Even now, she could feel the eyes of the shopkeeper against the back of her head. Her thoughts lingered on the way he’d stared at her when she walked in. Clearly, French maids were not a very common sight in Suwa.

_Still, an American tourist?_ Sakuya noted._ I’m not even American! I’m Romanian-French! …And Japanese. Maybe? I think?_

Sakuya felt a pressure begin to build at the front of her head. It was too early to give herself a headache with such thoughts, she decided. And so she sat, sipping her coffee, gazing out the window at the unfamiliar city.

It was such a different world from the one she was used to. The infrastructure was by far what stood out to her the most: traffic lights, asphalt streets, and buildings. But even apart from that, there was something subtler to it all. Living for so long in Gensokyo granted one a sense of the natural and the supernatural, of the magic and spirits that permeated the world. You could feel it in the air with every breath you took. But here, the sensation of the paranormal was significantly muted. Real magic was practically unheard of in modern Japan, and though Shinto still thrived, spirituality no longer lived at the forefront of society. It had been that way for a while, but the Outside World was even less magical than it was just half a century ago.

And as she stared into the street, Sakuya’s transluscent reflection in the window stared back, with the exact same face it had for the past fifty years.

It had been a long time since Sakuya had the opportunity to sit down like this, with her own thoughts. It should have been relaxing. But instead it left a bitter taste in her mouth, far stronger than the taste of coffee.

Sakuya gave a wistful sigh, and took one last drink from her paper cup. As she sipped the last drop of coffee, her eyes caught notice of something. At first, it seemed to be her own reflection in the window_. _But when her eyes took a closer look, she saw something else entirely.

It was a man, standing just outside the street. But to say he was _just_ a man would be greatly inaccurate, for it was clear at first glance that he was not ordinary.

The man was impressively lanky, with at thin build that stood at least two meters tall. His skin was pale – much like her own – with collar-length hair that cascaded down the sides of his head, framing his face in strands of silver moonlight. His right eye lay beneath a wafer-thin monocle, and though their deep silver color matched his hair, Sakuya could see them subtly shift to a deeper hue with every passing moment.

His outfit was undoubtedly odd – a white suit jacket and matching trousers, garnished with fanciful lace patterns, silver embroidery, and black buttons. His undershirt fit snugly, with black and grey horizontal stripes, matched by black leather gloves and a pitch-black cravat tied around his neck. Paired with the monocle, he looked like a strange reimagining of an 19th-century English aristocrat. But though his appearance was strange, what was more alarming were the objects he carried with him.

Attached to a silver chain on his waist was an extraordinarily well-polished pocketwatch, which he carried closed in his hand. On the opposite side of his waist, a larger chain held a large iron keyring with several keys. Attached to the keyring was an even _larger _silver chain, which terminated at a truly bizarre weapon. It was a stopwatch, almost twice as large as the man’s head, with thirteen hours marked on its face. Instead of a minute and an hour hand, a single hand extended outward in both directions, pushing past the edges of the stopwatch itself. One end formed a short grip that resembled a hilt, while the other extended a full meter outwards, forming the unmistakable blade of a sword.

The man smiled, leaning his elbow on the clock-sword’s hilt as its tip remained buried in the ground.

Sakuya blinked.

And then the man was gone.

A sensation like a jolt of electricity ran down Sakuya’s spine. She jumped to her feet, a movement that clearly startled the shopkeeper.

“Ah! Is everything alright, miss maid?”

Sakuya’s eyes darted to the shopkeeper, then darted back to the window. “Did you see that!?”

“Um… See what?”

“The man in the window. There was a man standing outside. Did you see him?”

“No, I’m afraid I didn’t.” The shopkeeper frowned. “Is everything alright, miss maid? Should I call the police?”

Sakuya felt her muscles tense briefly, then relax. “No, that’s… it’s fine. I’ll be fine.” The click of her heels echoed across the floor as she walked over to the corner, and deposited her empty cup in a trash can. As she grabbed her suitcase and headed out the door, the image of the Man in White lingered on her mind.

_Did I really see that, or was I just imagining things?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The picture used in this chapter was drawn for me by Jean Fox. Check out here Twitter here:
> 
> https://twitter.com/MrsByakuren


	7. Tomorrow Will Be Sunny, Yesterday Was Not

It was rapidly becoming apparent that Sakuya did not know what to do with all her newfound spare time.

She had never had much in the way of spare time in the first place, really. When she wasn’t taking care of her mistress’s needs, or fighting off that persistent intruder in black and white, she was trying to get the fairy maids to stop inadvertently making a mess of things. Even now, vivid images of all the fairies’ incompetence danced in her mind, all the ways in which they could possibly ruin the upcoming Full Moon Party in her absence. Just thinking about it, she could feel her blood pressure rising.

_But worrying about that won’t do me much good now_. Sakuya’s mistress had ordered her to take a vacation, and she intended follow that order as closely as possible. She had to relax, somehow. Find something that could take her mind off of the stress of the job.

She had checked her luggage into a local hotel, leaving her with little else in the way of ideas. After an embarrassing incident where she was mistaken for hotels staff, she began meandering through the city, eventually making her way to the very lake that Suwa was named after. The lakeside park gave a wide, untarnished view of the massive body of water, with small fishing boats visible both on the docks and further into the lake. Sakuya found an unoccupied park bench near the docks and sat herself on it, quietly taking in the scenery. She watched as the summer sun lazily poured over the waters, catching on the lake’s surface in glints of golden light. Sakuya breathed in, letting the air fill her lungs. She hadn’t had time to herself like this since…

…since she couldn’t even remember, really. Fifty years of servitude, and yet she couldn’t even bother to count the days. It was such an unusual feeling, being able to relax. Her eyes closed as she leaned her head back, letting the gentle breeze carry her thoughts away.

“If you’re looking for things to do, there’s a lovely timepiece museum nearby. Suwa is quite well-known for its watchmaking industry.”

Sakuya’s eyelids twitched. The fact that someone was speaking to her did not quite register in her mind.

“You could also pay a visit to the Moriya Shrine, if you’re so inclined.” The voice — most likely a man’s — held not a trace of emotion, yet its words flowed with elegant cadence. “There is quite the fascinating history behind it. Are you familiar with the legend of Take-Minakata?”

Sakuya’s eyes suddenly snapped open. “I don't believe in gods,” she curtly replied. But when she turned her head to address the apparent speaker, there was no one there. The closest human being she could see was a man sitting atop a fishing boat in the distance.

_...What?_ _W__as I just daydreaming?_

She straightened out her dress and stood up. Nothing worth dwelling on now. It would be a waste to spend her vacation loitering on a park bench, so she might as well look for other things to do. And, now that she thought about it, this ‘Moriya Shrine’ didn’t sound like a bad place. She’d never really gotten a chance to see any of the local attractions up close.

_Plus, it’d be nice to see a shrine that’s actually taken care of._

* * *

She had to ask the locals for directions, but Sakuya managed to find her way to the Moriya Shrine. Most people she spoke with were quite confused, she noticed. The Moriya Shrine was hardly a popular tourist destination, especially compared to the more famous structures of the Suwa Grand Shrine complex. But eventually, she managed to get her bearings and make her way to her destination.

The path to Moriya Shrine took Sakuya across a mountainous trail to the north of the lake, past the suburban developments at the edge of the city and into barely-contained wilderness. Whereas the roads of the city cut straight through the land with reckless abandon, the road that let to the Moriya Shrine coiled around the land organically, enveloping and enveloped by the mountains it encircled. While the road was technically paved, it had clearly not seen much in the way of traffic. It was barely wide enough for a single car, and the scattered seed pods and tree-born refuse demonstrated a lack of interest in keeping it clear.

As she neared the shrine, Sakuya was taken up into the forested highlands, far above the city she had come from. The areas was so thick with trees that she couldn’t see a single sign of civilization, beyond the pavement beneath her feet. It almost felt like she’d left the Outside World all over again.

And as her mind lingered on human civilization, she was left with the curious questions raised by the fact the fact that it was still intact. The Great Prophecy said that Count Dracula was supposed to have launched his final assault on humankind in the year 1999. Given that society was still no worse for wear, and even more complex than ever, he seemed to have failed. But what exactly did that mean for humankind? How were they affected by such a grave threat, if at all? Were they even aware of the final battle against Dracula at all?

The thoughts were abruptly cut short when Sakuya noticed that the road in front of her had ended. It terminated at an unpainted wooden _torii _gate, beyond which lay a simple dirt path through the trees. The path terminated in a simple shrine building with a very thick _shimenawa _rope tied across the front.

Standing in front of the shrine was a girl with long green hair, late in her adolescence from the look of it, and dressed in an outfit similar to a shrine maiden. Unusually for a shrine maiden’s dress, the color red was entirely absent, instead replaced with a striking blue. Her sleeves were also detached from her shirt, something Sakuya didn’t think shrine maidens did outside of Gensokyo. She carried a simple wooden broom, carefully sweeping away the fallen seed pods from the shrine’s entry path.

“Don’t see why I have to do this. It’s not like we ever get any visitors.”

“So what does that make me, then?”

The shrine maiden practically jumped into the air, sending her broom clattering onto the ground. She blinked rapidly, her mouth moving like it was struggling to catch the right words for the moment.

“You’re a maid.”

“I am, yes.”

“...Why?”

“What?”

“Why are you a maid?”

It was impossible to tell without the ability to observe artificially compressed time, but for the briefest of instants, Sakuya’s hand clenched into a fist.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Hmm. Sorry, let me start over,” said the shrine maiden. “What’s someone like you doing all the way out here? Like I said, we don’t really get visitors.”

“Well, I…” Sakuya paused. What _was _she doing here? She hadn’t even heard of the Moriya Shrine before. Yet she’d somehow gotten it into her head that it was a good idea to visit, based on nothing more than an idle daydream. “…I thought I’d do some sightseeing, that’s all.”

“Sightseeing, huh? Odd that you’d come here of all places.” The shrine maiden beamed, and beckoned Sakuya to follow her as she entered into the shrine’s interior. “Not that I’m complaining, of course! Come on in, let me introduce you!”

After a moment’s hesitation, Sakuya followed. _She didn’t pester me for donations? What bizarro universe have I found myself in?_

The interior of the shrine was cozy, with simple accommodations that were clearly meant for a simple lifestyle. And yet, that didn’t seem to fit very well with the apparent miko, who entered the door _with_ all the subtlety of a brick thrown through a window.

“_Lady Kanako! Guess what!?”_

Sakuya couldn’t help but wince at the sudden shout from the person next to her eardrums. The miko in blue seemed almost _giddy _at the prospect of having a guest.

Another voice called from deeper in the shrine. “_Kanako’s not here right now. What do you need?_”

“_We have a VISITOR!”_

_“Really now?” _The voice called back, sounding incredulous._ “Alright, let me see.”_

From somewhere deeper in the shrine, a young woman strode inward, wearing an outfit that could easily set her apart from a crowd of thousands. Her purple and white dress was simple enough, and while her blonde hair was unusual for someone of apparently Japanese descent, it was far from unheard of where Sakuya had lived. No, what was truly odd was her choice of headgear, a bell-shaped straw hat with a pair of great googly eyes affixed to the front. It was impossible to tell what the eyes were made of at a glance, but Sakuya had a feeling they weren’t plastic.

The young woman — very petite in frame, but definitely an adult — craned her neck upwards and stared Sakuya in the eyes. The two held their gaze for an uncomfortably long time. While they did, Sakuya could notice an almost unfathomable weight behind the tiny woman’s eyes, like she had somehow seen everything the world had to offer. 

_I hope she doesn’t see my eyes changing color. Everyone always makes it weird when they notice that._

If the woman with the strange hat noticed, she didn’t make a deal out of it. “Huh. That’s interesting visitor you got there, Sanae. Who’s your new friend?”

“Oh, um. Right. I don’t think we’ve introduced each other. I’m Sanae Kochiya, wind priestess. This is Lady Suwako. And you are?”

“Sakuya Izayoi. Head maid of—” She cut herself off, and mentally chastised herself. _Don’t say ‘Scarlet Devil,’ idiot! _“…Head maid of my mistress’s mansion.”

“Wow. A maid who works in a mansion, huh?” said Suwako. “Hey Sanae, it’s just like that manga you have!”

Sanae let out a squeak. “H-huh? Wait a minute! How did you find out about that one!?”

“Call it an educated guess,” Suwako teased. “Anyway, I’m curious. Where exactly did you come from? It’s not every day we get visitors, much less a maid like you.”

Sakuya hesitated for a moment. She wasn’t sure how to answer that. “France,” was the answer she eventually settled on. _Technically, it’s not incorrect._

“France, huh?” said Suwako. “I’ve heard of that place. Is it true they eat frogs there?”

“That’s a shallow stereotype,” Sakuya countered. “But… well. Yes.”

“I thought so. Consider the French to be my enemy, then.” Suwako said with a grin. “Not you, of course. Since you’re obviously not French.”

“Excuse me?” Sakuya protested. “Just what is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, call it a hunch, but I don’t think ‘Sakuya Izayoi’ is a French name,” Suwako replied. She leaned forward, sporting a grin like a cat that just knocked over a priceless vase. “That, and I know exactly what someone’s eyes look like when they’re thinking of home. And you _definitely_ weren’t thinking of home when you thought about France. So where are you from, really?”

Sakuya cursed inwardly, while Sanae regarded her with a quizzical eye. Her cover was blown. This woman, Suwako, was far more than she appeared to be at a glance. Perhaps something more than human, but that was impossible for her to determine right now.

“…Gensokyo. I come from Gensokyo,” said Sakuya. _I might as well admit it. It’s not like she knows where that is._

Suwako’s eyebrows immediately shot upward. For a moment, Sakuya could almost swear she saw the pupils of her hat’s eyes dilate, too. Sanae, meanwhile, simply looked confused.

“Gensokyo? I’ve never heard of such a place. It kind of sounds made up, honestly.”

Sakuya could feel her breath catching in her throat. This was a mistake. Gensokyo was secret for a reason, and she’d overstepped her boundaries. “You wouldn’t have heard of it,” she hurriedly said, “it’s in a very remote part of Japan. Anyway, I must be going. I just remembered I have things to do. Bye!” As she bolted out the door, Sakuya could vaguely make out Sanae, shouting something about paying tribute to a local deity.

_Not a chance, _Sakuya thought. _I don’t believe in gods._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the gears of fate are set in motion. For what is fate, if not a truth wound by time?
> 
> Until next time, my friends.


	8. Destiny

Sakuya was beginning to think that vacationing was actually rather boring.

Sure, it was nice to relax. It was nice to not have to worry about keeping everything in top shape, or corralling the fairy maids into being marginally useful. Or dealing with the capricious demands of her mistress.

But that ultimately left her with remarkably little to _do. _And as nice as the scenery in Suwa was, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as the natural beauty of Gensokyo. Even the novelty of seeing a modern city had begun to run its course after a while. The clock museum provided a momentary distraction, at the least, but it didn’t take long for her to see everything it had to offer.

Eventually, after idly wandering the city for a few hours and ignoring the perplexed stares her outfit attracted, she managed to check herself into the hotel. Along the way to her room, she encountered a very loud, very elderly couple who mistook her for one of the hotel staff.

Once _that _ misunderstanding had been taken care of, she let her luggage fall to the floor, and let herself collapse onto the bed. Nightfall wouldn’t be for another hour at the least, but despite the fact that she hadn’t really _done _anything, she felt tired.

Above the door frame, a clock hung on the wall, steadily counting the passage of each moment. The rhythmic sound of the second hand soothed her as she lay flat on her back, letting the world wash away at the gentle ticking noise...

* * *

_...Tick, tick tick._

_The young girl watched the clock on the classroom wall with eyes half-glazed over. The teacher’s words were nothing to her but a low, droning noise, her attention to the lesson having long since faded away. Everything was so BORING in school. So many lessons about math, history, science, and reading, yet none of it had anything to do with her. Her mother had made it clear that she was special, so why should she be treated like everyone else?_

_As the lesson continued, she played with her pencil, idly twirling it between her fingers, imagining that it was a knife. She recalled the story her mother told of her ancestor, who defeated the legendary Cyclops with nothing but a silver dagger._

_Her imagination ran wild as she pictured herself in her ancestor’s place, standing in his shoes. There, she was the Hunter, humanity’s greatest ally in a time of dire threat. The Hunter stood in the midst of a thunderstorm, facing the fearsome one-eyed beast. The Cyclops snarled viciously and brandished his club, the weapon itself the size of fully-grown man._

_The Hunter considered her options. Though her primary tool was a potent ancestral weapon, approaching the Cyclops with it was a death sentence. And her pitiful daggers would only serve as a minor annoyance to the beast._

_Lightning flashed from the clouds directly above, a sign of the gathering storm. And the Hunter had an idea._

_With resolve of tempered steel, she jumped into the air and threw a dagger: not directly at the Cyclops, but instead directly above him, between the monster and the massive cumulonimbus that towered over the battlefield._

_There was a blinding flash, followed by a deafening roar of thunder. In the next moment, the Cyclops was gone, reduced to a stain of ashes on the stone brick floor. The silver dagger had acted as a lightning rod, attracting the cloud’s latent electric charge and conducting it into a massive bolt of lightning. The moment the dagger passed over the Cyclops’s head, the lightning struck, and the monster was killed instantly._

_Suddenly, she heard the teacher calling her name. The young girl was instantly snapped out of her dream, and brought back to reality. The teacher looked down on her with stern brown eyes._

“_C__lass has been dismissed already. Were you listening?”_

_The girl_ _ looked around, and saw that the students were already packing their things and leaving. “Yes miss,” she replied. “Just thinking about stuff.”_

“_Well, don’t let your thinking distract you from the lesson,” said the teacher. “You do remember what the homework is, don’t you?”_

_The girl_ _ gave a wordless affirmation, though she didn’t really mean it. Eventually, the teacher let her go, and she packed her things and headed out the doors._

_As she left, she caught a group of other students gossiping in the schoolyard. Passing them by, she could hear them stage-whispering._

‘_Look! It’s her! Don’t get too close.’_

‘_I heard she has weird powers.’_

‘_**I **__heard she __made__ Clairette disappear, and that’s why she’s not here anymore__.__’_

‘_And __**I **__heard she __cut out__ her __father’s heart__ with a knife.’_

_ The girl increased her walking speed as she passed them by, _ _ taking great care to hide her face. _

* * *

Sakuya awoke abruptly the next morning, and had it not been for the sunrise peeking through her window, she would have thought that time had stopped. Early mornings in the Scarlet Devil Mansion had always carried with them an eerie stillness, as though everything had suddenly stopped. Her mistress was everything to the mansion and its caretakers, and when she went to sleep there always was a sense that something was missing, like the horrible morning sun had vanquished the night.

Normally, Sakuya would take that time to do any chores that had not been completed, before going to bed, with a touch of time magic to ensure her waking hours were _almost_ diurnal. But here, there was no such option. She was simply left alone with her thoughts. A brief shower and a change of clothes provided a momentary distraction, but ultimately she could not escape the instrospection it invited.

She was, in every meaningful sense, a stranger to this land. She had not considered the Outside World her home in decades, and even as a mere tourist she had found nothing for her. If she were anyone else, she may have taken the time to visit any friends she’d left behind, but...

_Friends. Do I _ _even _ _have any friends in the Outside World?_

It was a tough question. Sakuya hadn’t been here in such a long time, the mere thought of anyone being her friend outside Gensokyo seemed ludicrous. And what she did remember of her life before serving as a maid, she remembered only being ostracized and misunderstood. She never had any friends here. They never gave her a chance.

And yet…

...and yet, that wasn’t true. An image formed in her mind, of a young woman in blue and white, with long auburn hair and a well-worn book tucked beneath her arm.

It was a distant memory, but there was someone she befriended, someone who showed her kindness when nobody else did. They had met during her mother’s funeral, and she she showed an understanding of Sakuya that no one else had cared to. Someone who didn’t see her magic as an aberration, or something to be feared.

Of course, that was more than fifty years ago, and there was no guarantee that person was still alive now. But Sakuya simply didn’t know anyone else in the Outside World, nor did she have any other place to go.

_Charlotte Aulin. It’s been a long time since I’d thought about that name._

And so for the first time since she had stepped outside the Hakurei Barrier, Sakuya’s destination became clear. She would head to France, to the Forest of Rambouillet west of Paris, near the village that she had once called her home.

In short order, she had packed her things and checked out of the hotel, already headed towards the train station.


	9. Ghostly Field Club

It was quite apparent that train technology had advanced considerably since the last time Sakuya had boarded one. When she was last in the outside world, trains were loud and hulking things powered by pressured steam and flaming coal. Now, they were clean and shiny and ran near-silently, without a hint of smoke to be seen.

Kami-Suwa station was not a large train station, all things considered, but the concrete platforms and sleek entrances put it light-years above what she had expected a train station to be. And as she awaited the train on the platform, she could only wonder what to expect of her destination.

If Suwa was impressively modern by her standards, she couldn’t even imagine what Tokyo would be like.

It did not take long for the train to arrive, and for Sakuya to board is passenger car. Ignoring the conductor staring at her maid outfit as he punched the ticket, she made herself comfortable in its seat, and gazed idly out the window. Before long, the train was moving, and she saw the city pass by, gradually transitioning into the green, mountainous countryside as the train moved past the city limits.

Seeing everything move by her so quickly in the window was weirdly hypnotic, in a way Sakuya couldn’t quite explain. Her surroundings melted away, until she was aware of nothing but the gentle hum of the train’s engine, and the silent image of the landscape as it moved by.

She did not even notice that someone had sat down in the aisle seat right next to her.

“Enjoying the view?”

A sudden chill ran up Sakuya’s spine. She turned to see a very familiar face. A seemingly middle-aged woman with pale skin, golden hair, and matching golden eyes, wearing an immaculately pressed skirt suit colored vibrant purple. She wore a pair of thin crimson spectacles, their color matched by her lipstick and the thin red ribbon tied around her hair, which was styled into a short bun.

“Trains are fascinating, aren’t they? Easily the best mode of transport, in my opinion. Shame we have to crowd our cities with so many cars instead.”

Sakuya blinked. With the lady’s new outfit, it took her several moments to figure out who she was talking to.

“Yakumo,” she said, bluntly.

‘Yukari’ gave a thin smile. “You must have me mistaken for someone else, Miss Izayoi. Here, I am simply an ordinary human, just like you.”

Sakuya fought the urge to roll her eyes. “So why are you dressed like an office lady?”

“I am traveling on a perfectly ordinary human business trip. And what about you, hm? What brings you to the Outside World?”

“Milady ordered me to take a vacation,” Sakuya replied. “So, that’s what I’m doing.”

“A vacation! I’m envious. Where do you plan on spending your vacation? I hear Tokyo Bay is quite pleasant this time of year.”

Sakuya hesitated before replying. She was certain there was an ulterior motive to the question, but she had no way of knowing what it might be. “...Paris. I’m going to visit France.”

“Oh, how wonderful. I’ve always wanted to visit Paris again sometime,” said ‘Yukari.’ “But there may be a slight flaw in that plan of yours.”

Sakuya raised her eyebrow. “Flaw? What flaw?”

“Well, for one, you’re going to need a passport.”

“Passport?” A lightning bolt of sudden realization crashed through Sakuya’s mind. _Ah! __P__assport! I don’t have an ID!_

The lady gave a coy smile. “I take it you neglected to consider that. Not to worry, I’ve prepared for such an occasion.” She reached into her pocket, and pulled out a thin, dark-red booklet, labeled _Union européenne_ and _République française_.

Sakuya took the passport, and curiously opened to its front page. Immediately, she could tell that the card was fake. It listed her name as “Sakuya Izayoi,” which was not her birth name. It had also listed her year of birth as 1982. But there was one part which was correct, more disconcerting than any other.

“...How did you know that I'm French?”

As if anticipating the exact moment of her question, the conductor’s voice cut off any possible response. “_Now arriving at Chino Station_.”

‘Yukari’ flashed a knowing grin. “Well, how about that. I would love to speak more, but this is where I get off. See you soon.”

Sakuya sighed. She should have known better than to expect a straight answer from the gap-woman. And to say nothing of the fact that she had taken interest in Sakuya’s vacation. Yukari’s intentions, as always, were inscrutable.

Still, she would never _ quite _ know what Yukari was up to, she supposed, and there was no sense worrying about the unknowable. Besides, her mistress wanted her to relax. She would gain nothing from a vacation if she let such things weigh on her mind.

After the train let off its passengers at Chino Station, Sakuya watched the landscape as it began moving again, and she felt herself lulled into a trance by the train’s hypnotic pace. The world gradually blurred, and she found herself slowly slipping into unconsciousness.

\----

_“Paris has fallen.”_

_The words were permanently burned into the girl’s mind the moment she heard them spoken. Though it was only a short distance to the East, she’d never had a chance to visit Paris before. But she didn’t have to have been there to know it was a very important place. It was the capital of France, a city of cream-colored boulevards, dark catacombs, beautiful cathedrals, bountiful promenades, and shining electric lights on every corner._

_ How could such a magnificent city have possibly fallen? _

_ Her question was answered when the soldiers came . _

_The next four years of her childhood were a vivid haze, living under constant fear and hearing rumors of horrible things. Though their village was too far out of the way for many soldiers to come, the occasional patrol could appear at any time, and people of the village could disappear at any time._

_Her mother had remained steadfast during this, helping out as many villagers as possible. Hiding them when necessary, always managing to avoid suspicion through soft words and an unassuming appearance. Her mother was brave, braver than anyone she knew in her lifetime._

_ But still, her mother couldn’t save everyone. She always wondered what happened to the people who the soldiers took away. When she learned, she almost wished she hadn’t wondered at all. _

_ For all her life, the girl had grown up on stories of her ancestors, who protected humankind from monsters who preyed on the innocent under cover of night. _

_ She had never imagined that evil would wear a human face, in broad daylight. _


End file.
